Category Archives: WW11

I recently interviewed Doris Degaute (b1923) who is the retired head teacher of Wilbury Infant and nursery school She has led an interesting life with most of it based in Palmers Green and Southgate. Doris also has some very interesting family connections. Her uncle on her mother’s side was Jack Trewin a very well known theatrical critic and his son Ion Trewin was also involved with the theatre and a well known writer.

Doris’ father, Percy Emerson Rendell, was in the Navy during the First World War and whilst based in Plymouth met her mother and they married there in 1919.

Her maternal grandfather Captain Trewin remembered going to sea as a 14 year old cabin boy and being ice bound in the St Lawrence River, which he found extremely, frightening.

Percy, although a qualified musician had worked in the city before the War but decided to work as a musician afterwards and was lucky enough to find a job with the D’Oyly Carte Opera company. The family then moved into what was then known as 31 Old Park Villas and as you can see this looked like a lovely family house.

Their address changed however, when it was decided that Green Lanes would come into being and the house then became 210 Green Lanes. Percy was involved with several amateur opera companies as well as the D’Oyly Carte and then decided to leave the D’Oyly Carte and work as a professional with amateur companies. Something which is easily forgotten, is that in the years before television, during the 20s and 30s, there were huge numbers of these companies and they often employed a professional choir master or director. Doris remembers her father working away from home most weeks and being put on a train in the care of a guard, with her sister and brother and travelling to attend the last night of most productions and the after show party. She also remembers being very well looked after by her father’s landladies and being much admired by the singers and actors at these late night parties, with her father being the life and sole of the party. Unfortunately as soon as WW11 started all of these activities ceased and her father died in 1941 aged only 57. The family then found that they no longer owned their house as her father had sold it to help his brother.

The musical thread lived on in the Rendell family as Doris’ brother is Don Rendell a very well known Jazz musician who currently lives in Edmonton.

The house was eventually bought by the council and turned into flats and fortunately her mother was able to live in one until she died.

Doris went to Southgate County and joined civil service at 16 then about 2 years into the war the government said as there was a shortage of men in certain professions everyone available would be given one of three choices, the land army, hospital domestic work and working on the buses. This disappointed lots of Doris’ colleagues who had been hoping to join the more glamorous services, such as the ATS or the Wrens. Doris chose the buses, as she would be based in Wood Green. Unfortunately she is rather short and there were no uniforms for short people, so hers drowned her and also bus conductors had to hook the trolley bus leads over a new set of wires when they turned a corner using a long pole and Doris couldn’t reach the wires and on one occasion she was trying, unsuccessfully, to sort out a lot of school children with tickets and change and a bus inspector saw her. After 3 days she was sent back to the civil service and worked for the Crown Agents until then end of the war.

After work Doris would help with the WRVS and one evening she was asked to help a newly arrived Belgian soldier, Arthur Degaute who she later married. Arthur’s family had a fashion business in Casablanca and he had been interned when the German’s invaded. After being released by the Americans he volunteered for the army and arrived in Liverpool Street to help with the war effort.Doris and Arthur leaving 210 Green lanes after their wedding.

After the war Doris, now a new mother trained as a teacher but as Arthur found it tricky to get a job they went to Casablanca where Arthur could work in the family business. This lasted until the Moroccan king died and the new King no longer wanted to be a French Protectorate and all the French and European business people had to leave. Doris and Arthur returned to the UK, where Doris resumed her teaching career. Doris worked at the old St Paul’s primary school, before the new one was built in Station Road. She remembers it being so cramped that the children had to sit in rows and if anyone wanted to go to the toilet all the children on that row had to move. She also worked in Tottenhall and then moved to Wilbury Infants as deputy head, becoming head after a few years and remaining there until she retired. It was one of the first schools to have a purpose built nursery, a few schools were chosen by Enfield to have nurseries and Doris remembers going on a course to facilitate it’s development. The school is on the borders of Edmonton and Tottenham and parents from Tottenham were always trying to get their children into an Enfield School. During a recent hospital stay, Doris was greeted by several nurses and patients who remembered her with great affection.

In this first video Betty talks about growing up in Palmers Green before the Second World War.

In this second video, Betty talks about the outbreak of the second world war and her family moving to Hever Castle, luckily her father had been working for Lord Astor since shortly after the first world war. As the threat of invasion became more serious, she was then evacuated, firstly staying with a family she didn’t like and then, happily to a very kind family.

This is a comment about Betty’s interview from our You Tube Channel

Thank you for making this – worth doing with people who are not THAT old like this lady, as her memories are all intact. All too often, oral history projects focus on those about to pop off who can’t really remember much. My grandparents lived round the corner in New River Crescent, and my father (borm 1932) would often talk of the Palmadium and Queens cinemas

Jacques talks about moving to Palmers Green in 1966 and how he started making films of the area in the late 1960’s. We can see a compilation of some of his early films on the site. Jacques explains how he copied some of his films into new formats so we can see them today. It is lovely to see Broomfield House in the film.He talks about his early life as a Jewish child during the second world war in Paris and being hidden in Gargenville. He was also based in Germany during the time of the Belin airlift completing his French national service and working in air traffic control.

Calling out to everyone who may have photos of the opening ceremony of the War memorial garden in Broomfield park. The ceremony was in 1929, please look in old family photo albums. Please contact us if you find any.

Born in 1926, Betty Wright nee Walton lived in Southgate town hall. Her father was station officer at the fire station ajacent and also the mace bearer for the Council.

“One night in March 1941, the Dance Hall (held in the Princes Hall above Pitman’s College) in Green Lanes, Palmers Green was bombed. A German bomber ‘plane was overhead…and tragically his bomb carriage was blown off, so all the bombs came down together in Palmers Green.